Get the salomon aero glide 3 GRVL. A much better, more responsive midsole with a better outsole and lower weight. Just a great shoe. Also pretty cheap on sale because it's the last generation model now (the v4 is VERY similar)
I love the weight and running experience of my new Adizero EVO SL shoes. (My Nike Vomero 18 are pretty comfortable but my new fave is the EVO SL)
I have been hiking and backpacking in Altra Lone Peak for years but I’m starting to RUN long runs (10-20 miles) on flatter hard-pack desert trails and I’d like to find something with cushioning yet is super light. I would like enough grip for small gravel rocks. Any suggestions? (I need a wide toe box.)
UPDATE: I ended up buying Mount to Coast H1, Salomon Aero Glide 3 GRVL,, Hoka Challenger 8 and Adidas Terrex Agravic Speed. I ended up keeping only the Hoka Challenger 8.
Here are my thoughts:
Adidas Terrex were interesting but too flat and didn't fit my foot at all. They are a unique shoe. I think they would be good on rocky, somewhat technical trails. Women's 8. $60 (Deal! too bad they didn't workout for me.)
Mount to Coast H1 is sturdy, the rocker is not overly pronounced, I liked the shoe BUT the upper material is really thick and made my foot hot just walking around the house for an hour. Actually, the lugs were the least pronounced of all the shoes. Women's 8.5. $153 with slight discount.
Salomon Aero Glide 3 GRVL is the lightest but felt sluggish running around the house but comfortable. A negative for me would be the deep cutouts in the sole, which could get gravel stuck. Women's 8.5. $150.
Hoka Challenger 8 feels more like a road shoe but the lugs are the largest. It seems the most flexible of all the shoes as far as comfort is concerned. Women's 8. $105 because they are white. (My shoes look like crap after a few runs anyway.
The Challenger doesn't seem to be as durable as either Mount to Coast nor Salomon but they felt the lightest and most comfortable overall.
I’d recommend the Aero Glide 3 GRVL (or the new 4, though I haven’t tried that one yet). It’s a really nice balance of comfort and responsiveness, and the outsole works surprisingly well on both road and light trail/gravel. I use mine for mixed long runs (20-30K on road + gravel), and they handle that type of terrain very well. For a 50K with 70/30 road/trail, they’d be a strong option.
For your road marathon, I’d also agree with others on the Superblast 2. It’s a great long-distance shoe with a good mix of cushioning and efficiency. The Superblast 3 looks a bit more aggressive and responsive (and slightly lighter), but also a bit less stable from what I’ve seen, so probably more “racey,” but SB2 is still the safer all-round pick.
Hi, I am slowly getting back into running, but my current one-shoe-rotation is the **Adidas Adizero Boston 13**. I love them, but would like something a little less aggressive for recovery runs and something better suited for forest/trail runs.
Luckily for me, I have a trail race (12k) in April, which I thought was a great opportunity for me to add some more versatile runners to my rotation.
So far I have been mostly looking at the **Asics Novablast 5 TR** and the **Adidas Evo SL ATR**. None of them are actual trail shoes, but I do do most of my running (75%'ish) on road and some of my long/recovery runs in mixed terrain (mainly road, gravel, dirt, and grass).
Any thoughts or recommendations? I would really appreciate your advice :-)
I went with the Salomon Aero Glide 3 GRVL and I have really been enjoying them. They are not super stable, but they managed some challenging trails just fine. My only real complaint is the tongue. It is made of some thin neoprene without much cushioning, and I tend to tie my shoes quite tightly when running trails, which means that the laces can dig into your feet a bit. But this is a problem I have with most of the shoes I use, so I might just be an outlier. From what I hear, this might be fixed in the 4th version of the shoe, but I haven't tried them myself.
The issue is not too much of a problem for me, and I would happily purchase them again.
Top Trail Running Shoes on Reddit
1
Mount to Coast
H1
85% positive of 177 users
Versatile road-to-trail, but struggles on wet, technical downhills.
Axxis09
